Nexus One Pros and Cons: 13 vs 7

The Google Nexus One smartphone is now being used by some of us, the lucky buyers, and now it’s time to talk about the first impressions from the new HTC smartphone. Though, it’s been only a few weeks that the phone is available on sale, we are ready to provide our Pros and Cons and identify its major drawbacks, as well as the obvious advantages. It should be noted that here we will talk not only about the Nexus One, but also Android OS, as it is an integral part of the Nexus One.

Let’s start with the pleasant list of the Nexus One advantages:

Pros

1. The device runs really fast. It took Nexus One about 33 seconds to load from completely off. This is an excellent result compared to Palm Pre devices, which usually load in around two minutes.

2. The same applies to the complete shutdown of the smartphone, which takes up to 6 seconds.

3. It is worth noting the possibility of charging even when the device is turned off. For example, iPhone 3GS and Palm Pre should always be on, which is not convenient, especially at night when you’re trying to sleep. As for the Nexus One, the smartphone has a tiny LED indicator which allows a color variation depending on whether the device is charging or is already charged.

4. Flashing notice is just great! In case of checking the incoming messages on the iPhone, for example, the user needs to constantly take it out of the sleeping mode. Nexus One doesn’t have this kind of shortcomings. Just look at the navigation key to see if the light flashes or not! In addition, notification can be configured for different events – SMS, e-mail messages in various services, etc.

5. Multitasking in Nexus One is implemented just fine. Using iPhone, the user should click Home, before moving on to another application. While using the Google device you simply hold the Home button to select the desired application from the list.

6. Gmail app works just amazing and it’s not a surprise as the smarthphone is of Google brand. This is especially noticeable when working with multiple accounts, the corresponding addition has become a hallmark of the Android 2.1 OS. It is very convenient to have access to two mailboxes at the same time, working and personal. Except this quick switching between them is carried out with a special bookmark menu. So, if you use the postal service, Gmail on your PC, then you’ll definitely like Nexus One.

7. The function of voice to text conversion is also admirable. The smartphone perceives the voice dialing for text messages, e-mails and even for the most useful Twitter. The function works fine, without any obvious errors with a rather quick speed. Moreover, the function remains fully operational even in fairly noisy environment, by using a second microphone to cut off the extraneous noise.

8. Nexus One has a possibility of integration with applications from third-party developers, which is a big plus. For example, making a snapshot of built-in camera, you can send it to Picasa, Gmail, Facebook, send via SMS or via Bluetooth, and more, you can send it to Twitter directly from the camera. So everything is designed to satisfy customer desires.

9. Since we’re talking about the images, it is impossible to keep in the good impression, which produces the built-in camera. The quality of the images as well as video is quite acceptable. Of course, using the digital zoom is not desirable. In general, the camera is convenient to use, thanks to thoughtful interface and clearly realized gallery of photos.

10. The overall speed of the device is pleasing. Of course, it is necessary to monitor the number of running applications, since the large number of them significantly slows down the device. In order to prevent this from happening, it is better to use a special application for the closure of programs that should run several times a day. This will help you get rid of unnecessary slow downs and application malfunctioning. As for the rest, Nexus One is the fastest device up to now. Despite the fact that HTC HD2 uses the same hardware platform, a device running Android, significantly outperforms its Windows Mobile competitors.

11. Google Maps works perfectly. Of course, we have already seen it on other devices running Android, but in conjunction with a sufficiently powerful hardware platform the service works much faster helping the customer to get oriented in tough situations rather quickly.

12. Another extremely convenient feature can be truly called to be the Google Voice support.

13. Nexus One is rather thin and comfortable in hand due both to the size and the leather material used for the back part of the smartphone. Overall build quality is also pleasing.

Now let us define some disadvantages of the Google Nexus One:

Cons

1. First is the ease with which the device may accidentally turn on in the most inopportune moment. The system integration of the device definitely needs some improvements, as now Nexus One turns on even from an accidental pressing.

2. One of the most serious disadvantages of the Nexus One is the low quality of network signal reception, 3G isn’t there for T-Mobile.

3. The touch control of the device is, in general, satisfactory, except for the four touch buttons at the bottom of the screen. As noted, they work only when you click on their upper half, though the buttons themselves are not so big. Well, anyways this is also true about some of the other HTC models. But this wasn’t something to cut the number of sales.

4. The screen of the Nexus One is not equipped with a protective coating, for example, like iPhone 3GS. The user will need to wipe the screen every hour or two to keep it in acceptable form. In addition, fingerprints are visible on the screen, which is also not pleasant.

5. The direct sunlight makes the display almost invisible, though display of the Nexus One is AMOLED, and essentially saves battery power and shows a good picture indoor, which is not true for the pictures taken in bright sunlight. .

6. Lack of autonomy is a common drawback for most of today’s smartphones, and the Nexus One is no exception. With the energetic use of the device battery needs to be recharged in an average of eight hours. Anyways this is not that poor of performance.

7. In portrait mode, many sites are displayed incorrectly. This is quite an unexpected problem, which struck almost immediately. However, in landscape mode, such problems were not observed. The problem is something new so most likely it will be solved soon.

It can take quite a long time to enumerate the advantages and disadvantages of Nexus One, but here we paid attention to the key points only. In conclusion, we should note that the device has obviously more pluses than minuses.